PremiAir, Erebus bosses emphatic on Finals stance
Anton De Pasquale the sole remaining Camaro in Finals
Fellow GM teams "racing for ourselves"
PremiAir Racing and Erebus Motorsport bosses insist their teams will be “racing for ourselves” as a tense Repco Supercars Finals Series shifts to Sandown.
Team orders has been a hot topic since the Gold Coast, with Walkinshaw TWG Racing calling on Chaz Mostert to help Ryan Wood qualify. As it were, Wood missed out after three cars stopped for fuel — two of which were Chevrolets, which benefited Team 18 star Anton De Pasquale.
Supercars Technical drained the fuel from the two Camaros, and confirmed neither car would have made the finish without their third pit stops. GM Supercars boss Simon McNamara also denied any manufacturer influence, which would have been against Supercars rules, which only permit team orders within a team.
PremiAir Team Principal Roland Dane insisted a team is “entitled to do what it wants," in its own team, adding: “Anyone who thinks you can eliminate team orders within a team in motorsport is naive.”
However, while aligned with other GM teams through a technical alliance, Dane reiterated that PremiAir isn't out to help Chevrolet's only remaining title contender.
"Now, is [team orders] always great to see? No it isn’t… these things happen. Is it good to see? No. I can only tell you from our point of view as PremiAir, we’ll be racing for ourselves," Dane said.
“We’ll be racing for ourselves as a team. We’ll be respectful for the people who are taking part in this Finals thing, which I haven’t got any interest in myself.”
When asked if there were circumstances in which his team would try to help De Pasquale, Erebus CEO Barry Ryan was emphatic, replying: “Absolutely none.
Ryan continued: "If we’re up for a result, we’ll take every result we can get. Like Anton, we’re aligned with GM, but we’re not going to do anything that’s going to sacrifice our results, definitely not.”
Ryan's rookie driver Jarrod Hughes, who was one of the late stoppers on the Gold Coast, was also emphatic when approached by Supercars.com: "I'm not going out there to have a role in anyone's championship this weekend."
Teams and drivers were addressed on sporting integrity in Thursday’s scheduled briefing at Sandown.
Tickford Racing CEO Simon Brookhouse was clear on his team’s stance, saying: “You respect the rules of the racing, and you go out there and do your best.”
Dane cited the 2006 Phillip Island controversy — where Walkinshaw Holdens ruffled Ford’s Craig Lowndes in the title decider — as to why third parties can’t influence races, but maintained teams deserve the right to act in their best interests.
“You can’t stop, for instance, if Chaz Mostert saw on the big screen — he’d obviously know the equation that it was advantageous to back off, even if the team told him not to, how can you stop him doing it?” Dane said.
“Let’s be realistic about it. The rules in Supercars, the rule that exists there, is to stop manipulation by outside people, particularly manufacturers, but not only, there are sponsors across teams as well.
“[The rule changes after 2006] was to stop that going on afterwards. It wasn’t to stop a team acting in its own best interests between two cars on track.”
Ryan, meanwhile, backed the idea of using a teammate as a “wingman” to make it hard for their teammate’s rivals, citing how Ryan Wood’s efforts helped Mostert get to Adelaide and climb over Broc Feeney.
“You’ve got to have a wingman if you can, like Ryan Wood did last year to put pressure on Broc, it changed the championship, didn’t it?” Ryan said.”
“The end result, he didn’t do anything illegal or on purpose, he made it hard for Broc, and Broc took the bait.”
